Tuesday will mark the first business day of the new year, as well as being the Portage Township Trustee’s first day in its new temporary offices.
It's a place that more people are turning to for help.
For all of 2024 the office will temporarily operate at 340 Columbia Avenue in South Bend, just behind the post office, while its permanent building at 133 N. William St. downtown undergoes a renovation.
Township Trustee Jason Critchlow says when the township acquired the building in the 1960s, it had served as the first Teachers Credit Union. It still has the vault. He said the renovation will bring important updates for efficiency, safety and fire suppression.
Perhaps most noticeably, the restructured interior will allow more privacy for people seeking help with rent and utility bills.
"There's no real privacy for applicants," Critchlow says. "They come to the window, they kind of spill their whole ... you know, a lot of them are coming hat in hand, it's embarrassing, they don't want to come in here, they're asking for help maybe for the first time, and they're having to do it in front of a bunch of people."
Such changes are especially important as more people came in seeking help this year than ever before. The office handed out $585,000, up 37 percent from the $427,000 given last year.
